Archive for Virtual Teams

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Tuesday,April22nd,2014

Today is Earth Day, but given some of the recent reports on climate change, it’s clear we need to be focused on the environment each and every day.

We realize there are many jobs that often require a physical presence and intend this post to help you to think out of the ‘typical box’.

Through a Google search, you can find many elite doctors that have performed successful virtual surgeries. When patients can’t come to doctors and doctors can’t come to patients, there are alternatives – no matter how remote the location.

This is the ‘virtual reality’ we live in these days… Almost every task can be completed online with the right technology.

Here at DemGen, we utilize tools such as Google Drive, Basecamp, Highrise, Infusionsoft, Grasshopper and many more to collaborate virtually.

Given how effectively we utilize these tools on a day-to-day basis, we often wonder why commute unless essential? OnlineMBA said back in 2010, beyond the environmental impact, businesses are losing money on in-house workers. Technology has evolved even more since, allowing for even more online collaboration…

According to 2013 US Census data, 8.1 percent of U.S. workers still commute for 60 minutes or longer (frighteningly 10.1 percent in California), and nearly 600,000 full-time workers are “mega commuters,” traveling 90 minutes, 50 miles or more for their jobs. What percent of that is actually necessary in this day and age?

Indeed, many commuters require face-to-face meetings, but what about the rest? How much could telecommuting, even just for one day of the week, or hiring a virtual team, help the environment?

Instead of simply pondering what you can do this Earth Day, I challenge you to think about the BIG picture…

What can you do that will make a lasting impact to ensure future generations are able to enjoy Earth as we know it?

Baby steps are always a great starting point! Whatever you choose to do, you need to stick with it to inspire others to do the same.

Any step in the right direction is a good thing. Whatever you do to limit your environmental impact, we commend you! Please let us know in the comments or on social media, so we can share your feats. (We’re big fans of supporting people doing great things!)

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Monday,March24th,2014

1. Outline your mandatory must-haves.

Every business has goals they’d like to achieve – corporations have mandatory goals, or “must-haves” that must be met throughout the year in order for them to be deemed successful. If it works for a corporation, why shouldn’t it work for you?

Sit down and take time to assess what your business needs to succeed, and build those ideas into your mandatory must-haves. The DemGen Future Vision Map can help you realize clarity in what goals you should be working towards. Once you’ve decided upon them, your future goals, projects, growths, to do lists and activities should all match up accordingly.

What do you want your business to achieve this year? Do you want to increase visibility? Do you want to receive more feedback on current projects? Outline your mandatory must-haves and begin focusing on meeting those “must-haves” every month, or quarter.

2. Reposition your time and resources

As leaders, our time is valuable! At this point in the game, your time and resources should be allocated and strategically delegated to projects that are revenue generating. Delegation, as always, is key here.

If you find yourself spending two hours scanning through reports looking for important information, have someone from your team scan through them first and highlight the most important parts so you can get through them quickly.

3. Constant evaluation and monitoring is necessary

When trying to grow your business, you know you can’t just leave things to the happenstance. As tedious as it sounds, measuring and monitoring areas like revenue, sales, marketing, visibility, and productivity is extremely important.

By constantly refreshing your knowledge about where you stand in all of these areas, you can spot weaknesses and threats before they become a larger problem. Working with a virtual team with experience in monitoring and evaluating will help you notice patterns of what’s working, and what’s not, and help pinpoint exactly where you need to make changes.

4. Build a team of top talent players

Big business CEO’s know that a jack-of-all-trades generally means a master of none. Hiring one person to manage, and complete, all your miscellaneous tasks isn’t going to help your business grow. They are likely to become overwhelmed and that just pushes tasks back onto your plate.

With business platforms changing constantly, a virtual team will offer a group of top talent with specialties in a variety of areas. Virtual teams also mean you don’t have to worry about the office space, and can trust your team to be motivated and focused.

Of course, these changes can’t be implemented immediately. Over time though, and with the help of your team, you’ll see your business changing in ways you had only imagined!

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Tuesday,February18th,2014

The Benefits of Pragmatism in Business

Everyone’s ideas of a dream life and a dream business are different. As mentioned in last week’s post on thinking your way to a successful life, a little pragmatism goes a long way and it helps even further when creating a successful business.

Focusing on what is most important both in your life and your business and looking ahead to the consequences of your actions, not only makes sense, but is absolutely necessary if you are serious about your success. Each aspect of your business makes up the whole – marketing, finance, products and services, your customer base. Though you need to be flexible in order to make your products and services attractive to a variety of people, your focus needs to be on the final result.

Having your own business, while there to help your customers, is to mainly be of benefit to yourself. It’s to make a difference in your life and the lives of your family members. Being realistic about the reasons for your business, how you run it and what the outcome will be, means you can look at the way things really are, take the steps to change the things that need to be changed and be honest with yourself about what those are and why they need to be changed.

While a philosophical view of business seems to be popular at the moment, philosophy is not going to where you need to be to get what you want from your business. Work will do that, so will taking the time to educate yourself and organize your business to the best level of your ability. If you can’t do that, bring in a team in that can do it for you. It will be the smartest money you ever spend. Thinking pragmatically means you don’t spend time on the superfluous and unnecessary, you go straight to the important details, the ones that will make a difference in how well your business does, the details that will lead to success.

Anything that has positive implications for your business is something that you strive to do while ignoring those tasks that aren’t needed to get your business where you want it to go. Satisfying your customers and having tried and true solutions in place for any problems that arise, discovering how your business flows best and automating what you can, should all be priority tasks. One aside – don’t necessarily rely totally on technology and digital. Should there be an outage, even a short term one, this can affect your business negatively. Being there when no one else is available, is a big advantage that you should always keep in mind.

Pragmatism comes down to being efficient, wise with your time and having the ability to say no. It’s being open to change when necessary and knowing when what you have is enough. It’s a balancing act that many have problems with but it will keep you ahead of the competition.

Virtual teams are a literal ‘jack of all trades’ minus the ‘master of none’. The team dynamic allows for many people to work together and balance each other with their specific skills.

Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants are just what the name implies – assistants. They often also come from a corporate background, although it tends to be in secretarial or administrative roles. As a ‘one man show’, they have limited capabilities and are best suited for simple tasks such as calendar or email management, travel arrangements or dictation. Virtual assistants are able to apply their specific skills to the tasks provided to them, but rarely have an additional person to collaborate with when they do not have the expertise for what they have been assigned.

Which one is right for you?

Whether a virtual team or virtual assistant is best for you depends entirely on your business needs. Please also keep in mind; a virtual team is not a grouping of virtual assistants.

If you’re just starting up and have very simple and straightforward tasks you need assistance with, a virtual assistant may be the best bet.

If you have an established business with a lot on the go and multiple needs, a virtual team is probably best suited for you.